I am currently entertaining thoughts of furnishing my basement. I was wondering if this paper-like paste on the sides of the entire cold air return duct is going to pose a problem as far as health risks. There is also on other small area around a heating duct where this same material is located on an wide and flat elbow-like piece that goes right up to and through the floor and connected to the exhaust chimney (about a 3 ft by 2 ft area covered with this plaster, paper-like stuff).
I was wondering if I could seal/encapsulate these areas then carefully drywall around the cold air return. This house was build in 1947 and I think i am somewhat lucky and very thankful I'm not dealing with even more areas covered with asbestos. Do you guys think I should just have the cold air return removed along with the other area or can I seal it up somehow?
None of these areas look very disturbed other than an area on a beam where my parents had to have some asbestos professionally removed because before they replaced the furnace 15 yrs ago. Wish they would have removed at least this elbow piece. I sorta remember my dad being pissed that they wouldn't replace the furnace until it was removed. They should have removed this elbow piece also.